Turkey's Ruling Islamist Party Narrowly Escapes Ban

Horrible news from Turkey - the ruling party, the AKP, escaped being banned as a party in Turkey by the Turkish Constitutional Court today. The vote for banning was 6 to 5 (seven votes on the court were needed to actually ban the party). The Constitutional Court handed out some sanctions but it is nothing compared to what might have happened. Here's the details from BBC News:

Turkey's Constitutional Court has decided not to ban the ruling AK Party, accused of undermining the country's secular system.
But the judges did cut half the AKP's treasury funding for this year.
The AKP, which won a huge poll victory last year, denies it wants to create an Islamist state by stealth. It called the case an attack on democracy.

At least seven of the 11 court judges would need to vote in favour for the party to be banned. But six judges wanted a ban and five did not want to do so.

MP Suat Kinklioglu speaks of the AK Party's relief at the court's decision
"I hope the party in question will evaluate this outcome very well and get the message it should get," Mr Kilic said.

Now, I blogged about this recently and in that I described how the AKP, while being soundly the majority party among Turkish voters, had been charged with undermining Turkey's constitutional form of secular government. It had all started by the ruling party's rescinding a ban on head scarves for women in public universities.

The fact of the matter is this - the AKP are islamists who wish to see the secular nature of Turkey done away with and replaced with an islamic theocracy much like Iran. Sure, the AKP will deny that til the cows come home but that is the fact. This is a subtle attack on secularism by radical islamists and it is one damn shame that they escaped today. I'm sure they will be low key for awhile but mark my words, they will return to their agenda soon...and it may not be able to be stopped.

Turkey's ruling party escapes ban

Turkey's Constitutional Court has decided not to ban the ruling AK Party, accused of undermining the country's secular system.
But the judges did cut half the AKP's treasury funding for this year.
The AKP, which won a huge poll victory last year, denies it wants to create an Islamist state by stealth. It called the case an attack on democracy.
The powerful military sees itself as the guardian of the modern secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Court president Hasim Kilic said the financial sanctions imposed on the AKP were a "serious warning".
Narrow decision
At least seven of the 11 court judges would need to vote in favour for the party to be banned. But six judges wanted a ban and five did not want to do so.

The court case followed a series of confrontations between the AKP, which has Islamist roots, and the secular elite. Turkish secularists have staged huge anti-AKP rallies.
The party's attempt to allow Islamic headscarves to be worn at universities was highly controversial.

Last month the constitutional court said the move to lift the existing headscarf ban violated the secular constitution.
Since the 1960s, more than 20 parties - mostly pro-Islamist or pro-Kurdish - have been shut down by the courts for allegedly posing a threat to Turkey's secularist principles.
However, this is the first time that a closure case has been brought against a governing party with a huge parliamentary majority.
EU officials expressed some relief at the court's ruling on Wednesday.
"It is positive. Turkey is living a tense situation and we very much hope that the decision by the court will contribute to restore political stability," said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, quoted by Reuters.